Intragastric balloons or other balloons and objects commercially available are designed for providing short-term therapy for moderately obese individuals who need to shed pounds in preparation for surgery or as part of a dietary and behavioral modification program. One such inflatable intragastric balloon is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,061 and is commercially available as the Orbera® System from Allergan Medical of Irvine, Calif. Clinical results with these devices show that for many obese patients, the intragastric balloons significantly help to control appetite and accomplish weight loss.
The Orbera® System, for example, consists of a silicone elastomer intragastric balloon that is inserted into the stomach in an empty or deflated state and thereafter filled (fully or partially) with a suitable fluid. The balloon occupies space in the stomach, thereby leaving less room for food and creating a feeling of satiety for the patient. Placement of the intragastric balloon is non-surgical, trans-oral, usually requiring no more than 20-30 minutes. The procedure is performed gastroscopically in an outpatient setting, typically using local anesthesia and sedation. Intragastric balloons typically are implanted for a finite period of time, up to six months. This time period may be shortened by a treating physician who wishes to alter the patient's treatment and remove the balloon prior to the six month period. In any event, at some point after the balloon has been endoscopically placed in the stomach, it will become desirable to remove the balloon from the stomach. The usual means of removing the balloon is to deflate it by puncturing the balloon, and either aspirating the contents of the balloon or allowing the fluid to pass into the patient's stomach. This means of removing saline from the balloon requires surgical intervention, through the use of a gastroscopic instrument. When the balloon is deflated in this manner, the balloon itself may be surgically removed using the gastroscopic instrument.
Those experienced in the art will readily appreciate that manipulating the balloon in situ in order to deflate the balloon can be difficult. This is because the balloon is slippery and positionally unstable. The usually spherical or ellipsoidal intragastric balloons may readily rotate in the stomach, making it difficult for a surgeon to manipulate the balloon in order to find a deflation valve, or to safely puncture the balloon using a surgical instrument. One technique for addressing this issue is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,061 and includes providing a retrieval tab on the outer surface of the balloon. A tool with a hook, loop, or snare then has to be latched onto the tab to stabilize, and assist in deflation and retrieval of the balloon. This technique has not been widely adopted as it requires specially manufactured balloons or objects with the external tab. This configuration also requires that the balloon be manipulated within the patient's stomach to find and align the tab with the hook on the removal tool, which is often difficult to perform endoscopically (e.g., with limited tool dexterity and in limited visibility and light provided by the endoscope).
Also, current removal procedures typically require the use of multiple endoscopic instruments in order to first aspirate or puncture the balloon, and then to grasp the balloon for removal from the body. Further, current balloon removal technology requires the surgeon to target and puncture the balloon with a common aspirating needle, creating a pinhole through the shell of the balloon, which enables drainage. However, the size of this pinhole necessitates multiple punctures to be made, and occasional assistance from the physician to forcefully squeeze the balloon using the endoscope in order to drain the device (common with saline filled balloons).
Hence, there remains a need for an improved tool for deflation and retrieval of intragastric balloons and other fluid-filled objects from the stomach of patients. Preferably, such a tool would be useful with existing medical systems or tools such as endoscopes and would provide quicker and more effective grasping or capture of the balloon.